Patrick Daugherty

The Morning After

Terrelle Pryor's Progress

Forced into his job by default, Terrelle Pryor entered the season to Tim Tebow-esque expectations, and not the good (read: delusional) kind. The general consensus was that Pryor would be an inaccurate, unimpressive passer who was nevertheless a better fantasy than “real-life” option because of his running ability. He’d be a disaster, but sometimes he’d run for a 22-yard touchdown in garbage time.

What we’ve seen instead is a player who has put a team on his back — a team with no offensive line or defense to speak of — and made them not only interesting, but competitive. Never known for his accuracy, Pryor is completing 68.3 percent of his passes. He’s averaging 8.13 yards per attempt. Most impressive of all, however, is that he’s turned the ball over just twice in four games. Matt Schaub and Blaine Gabbert call that “one half.”

Pryor can’t save his bottom-barrel roster every week. Much like the rest of the NFL, he didn’t stand a chance against the Broncos (though he did draw them closer than anyone besides Dallas). But the quarterback everyone laughed at brought the Raiders to within a whisker of beating the Colts on the road, and guided them past Jacksonville and San Diego, the latter effort coming without his running back. A team that was expected to win maybe two games all year has already reached that mark one week into October.

Pryor is far from a finished product. Broken plays have been a common occurrence behind Oakland’s ramshackle line. But unlike the Tebows and Gabberts of the world, that’s all they are: Broken. They don’t become disasters because a desperate-to-impress quarterback tries to make something out of nothing. If we told you in Week 1 that the Raiders would get blown out in just one of their first five games (the fourth being started by Matt Flynn), would you have believed it? Absolutely not. Further along than anyone thought possible — and proof that some players just need a chance — it’s no longer inconceivable that Pryor will overachieve to the tune of earning himself a starting job beyond 2013, and not just plugging the gap.

Editor's Note: Rotoworld's partner FanDuel is hosting a one-week $300,000 Fantasy Football league for Week 6. It's $25 to join and first prize is $25,000. Starts Sunday at 1pm ET. Here's the link.

Blackmon’s first catch of 2013? How about a 67-yard touchdown. Even with the abominable, incomparable Blaine Gabbert under center, there was no slow start for Blackmon coming off his four-game ban. Blackmon finished his day with five grabs for 136 yards and the aforementioned score, and served notice that he’s going to immediately challenge for WR2 value, even in hopeless Jacksonville.

Granted, it was against the Jaguars — who entered Sunday allowing 5.2 yards per carry and 165 rushing yards per game — but Stacy had easily the best game of any Rams running back this season, taking the rock 14 times for 78 yards (5.6 YPC). Expected to remain the lead back as long as his rib injury is as minor as he insists it is, Stacy is worth an immediate flier as a potential RB3.

This is the player we saw in 2012. Playing well ahead of glorified blocker Darrius Heyward-Bey, Hilton immolated the Seahawks’ league-best secondary, getting behind the entire defense for a 73-yard score in the first quarter before adding a 29-yarder in the third. Hilton finished his day 5/140/2, good for his second 100-yard game of the season. Hilton is going to remain boom-or-bust, but has laid to rest the notion he can’t make the same kind of impact in Pep Hamilton’s offense as he did in Bruce Arians’.

It took Schaub all of one pass to go where no quarterback had gone before. In a week where Blaine Gabbert, Jeff Tuel, Brandon Weeden and Carson Palmer all appeared in NFL football games, Schaub became the first player in league history to throw a pick six in four straight contests. Then, for good measure, he added two more “standard” interceptions, one to a backup defensive tackle named “Tony Jerod-Eddie.” That earned Schaub some pine, though the 31-3 Texans deficit likely had as much to do with it as anything else. Coach Gary Kubiak stood behind his quarterback afterward, but make no mistake: The hook will be quick if Schaub comes out of the gate slow against the Rams’ decidedly less fearsome defense in Week 6.

You were a star that shined too bright, LeGarrette. An increasingly bigger part of the Patriots’ game plan for reasons unknown the past few weekends, Blount did what he eventually always does Sunday: Fumble. That led to Bill Belichick doing what he always does, and banishing Blount to the bench even though he had no alternative with Stevan Ridley (knee) inactive. Blount touched the ball just three times over the game’s final 38 minutes. Ridley’s status is murky — isn’t it always in New England? — but his role should be that of reinstalled lead hammer upon his return, whenever that may be.

Let’s make one thing clear: Green might be down, but talents of his level are never out. Nevertheless, with the Bengals putting the lid on their offense and taking the car keys away from Andy Dalton, Green’s WR1 blowups are going to be fewer and farther between than we’re used to seeing. The gifted third-year pro is averaging just 5.5/50 over his past four games, and has only one touchdown since Week 1. There are going to be big games — quite likely next week against the Bills’ still wounded defense — but Green is probably going to have a tough time living up to his 14.4 ADP. He’s a lower-end WR1 instead of the elite one we know he can be.

Questions

1. Anyone wanna tell Mike Sherman who his best players are, and that he needs to feature them every game?

2. After all the hits you’ve taken this season, this is what’s going to knock you out Michael Vick?

Forced into his job by default, Terrelle Pryor entered the season to Tim Tebow-esque expectations, and not the good (read: delusional) kind. The general consensus was that Pryor would be an inaccurate, unimpressive passer who was nevertheless a better fantasy than “real-life” option because of his running ability. He’d be a disaster, but sometimes he’d run for a 22-yard touchdown in garbage time.

What we’ve seen instead is a player who has put a team on his back — a team with no offensive line or defense to speak of — and made them not only interesting, but competitive. Never known for his accuracy, Pryor is completing 68.3 percent of his passes. He’s averaging 8.13 yards per attempt. Most impressive of all, however, is that he’s turned the ball over just twice in four games. Matt Schaub and Blaine Gabbert call that “one half.”

Pryor can’t save his bottom-barrel roster every week. Much like the rest of the NFL, he didn’t stand a chance against the Broncos (though he did draw them closer than anyone besides Dallas). But the quarterback everyone laughed at brought the Raiders to within a whisker of beating the Colts on the road, and guided them past Jacksonville and San Diego, the latter effort coming without his running back. A team that was expected to win maybe two games all year has already reached that mark one week into October.

Pryor is far from a finished product. Broken plays have been a common occurrence behind Oakland’s ramshackle line. But unlike the Tebows and Gabberts of the world, that’s all they are: Broken. They don’t become disasters because a desperate-to-impress quarterback tries to make something out of nothing. If we told you in Week 1 that the Raiders would get blown out in just one of their first five games (the fourth being started by Matt Flynn), would you have believed it? Absolutely not. Further along than anyone thought possible — and proof that some players just need a chance — it’s no longer inconceivable that Pryor will overachieve to the tune of earning himself a starting job beyond 2013, and not just plugging the gap.

Editor's Note: Rotoworld's partner FanDuel is hosting a one-week $300,000 Fantasy Football league for Week 6. It's $25 to join and first prize is $25,000. Starts Sunday at 1pm ET. Here's the link.

Blackmon’s first catch of 2013? How about a 67-yard touchdown. Even with the abominable, incomparable Blaine Gabbert under center, there was no slow start for Blackmon coming off his four-game ban. Blackmon finished his day with five grabs for 136 yards and the aforementioned score, and served notice that he’s going to immediately challenge for WR2 value, even in hopeless Jacksonville.

Granted, it was against the Jaguars — who entered Sunday allowing 5.2 yards per carry and 165 rushing yards per game — but Stacy had easily the best game of any Rams running back this season, taking the rock 14 times for 78 yards (5.6 YPC). Expected to remain the lead back as long as his rib injury is as minor as he insists it is, Stacy is worth an immediate flier as a potential RB3.

This is the player we saw in 2012. Playing well ahead of glorified blocker Darrius Heyward-Bey, Hilton immolated the Seahawks’ league-best secondary, getting behind the entire defense for a 73-yard score in the first quarter before adding a 29-yarder in the third. Hilton finished his day 5/140/2, good for his second 100-yard game of the season. Hilton is going to remain boom-or-bust, but has laid to rest the notion he can’t make the same kind of impact in Pep Hamilton’s offense as he did in Bruce Arians’.

It took Schaub all of one pass to go where no quarterback had gone before. In a week where Blaine Gabbert, Jeff Tuel, Brandon Weeden and Carson Palmer all appeared in NFL football games, Schaub became the first player in league history to throw a pick six in four straight contests. Then, for good measure, he added two more “standard” interceptions, one to a backup defensive tackle named “Tony Jerod-Eddie.” That earned Schaub some pine, though the 31-3 Texans deficit likely had as much to do with it as anything else. Coach Gary Kubiak stood behind his quarterback afterward, but make no mistake: The hook will be quick if Schaub comes out of the gate slow against the Rams’ decidedly less fearsome defense in Week 6.

You were a star that shined too bright, LeGarrette. An increasingly bigger part of the Patriots’ game plan for reasons unknown the past few weekends, Blount did what he eventually always does Sunday: Fumble. That led to Bill Belichick doing what he always does, and banishing Blount to the bench even though he had no alternative with Stevan Ridley (knee) inactive. Blount touched the ball just three times over the game’s final 38 minutes. Ridley’s status is murky — isn’t it always in New England? — but his role should be that of reinstalled lead hammer upon his return, whenever that may be.

Let’s make one thing clear: Green might be down, but talents of his level are never out. Nevertheless, with the Bengals putting the lid on their offense and taking the car keys away from Andy Dalton, Green’s WR1 blowups are going to be fewer and farther between than we’re used to seeing. The gifted third-year pro is averaging just 5.5/50 over his past four games, and has only one touchdown since Week 1. There are going to be big games — quite likely next week against the Bills’ still wounded defense — but Green is probably going to have a tough time living up to his 14.4 ADP. He’s a lower-end WR1 instead of the elite one we know he can be.

Questions

1. Anyone wanna tell Mike Sherman who his best players are, and that he needs to feature them every game?

2. After all the hits you’ve taken this season, this is what’s going to knock you out Michael Vick?

It’s not easy to catch passes in the NFL. You know when it’s really not easy? When you’re your team’s only legitimate receiving threat and are drawing shadow coverage from Brent Grimes. Neither of those facts stopped Smith from going 6/121 Sunday, and making him 5-for-5 in clearing the 85-yard mark this season. The breakout third-year pro is averaging a mind-boggling 20.6 yards per catch, and on pace for an 86/1,779/4 line.

It’s not easy for an NFL quarterback to enter a game he didn’t start and have success. Just ask Jeff Tuel. You didn’t get any meaningful reps during the week, and are asked to go from wearing a baseball cap to evading Jason Pierre-Paul at a moment’s notice. But Foles didn’t make it look so terribly difficult yesterday, completing 16-of-25 passes for 197 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions while icing a game the 1-3 Eagles absolutely had to have against a hapless division rival. Foles is expected to get the call against the Bucs’ much tougher defense in Week 6.

With 31.25 percent of the season in the books, Manning is on pace to break the yardage record by 553, touchdown record by 14 and throw only three interceptions in the process. Manning isn’t going to throw for 6,029 yards, and probably won’t even approach Drew Brees’ record 5,476 yards from 2011. But Tom Brady’s 50 touchdown passes from 2007 are very much in the crosshairs, as is the record 589 points his team scored that season.

Ryan Tannehill has taken eight more sacks than any other quarterback in football.

Awards Section

The Your Quarterback Is A Franz Kafka Novel Come To Life Award: Only Tony Romo — a quarterback whose most famous throws are all interceptions — could cap off a 506-yard, five-touchdown day with his worst throw: A game-sealing pick to a linebacker. Maybe in another life, Tony, maybe in another life.

Least Valuable Player, Non-Gabbert Division: The Cardinals are 3-2, but no thanks to Carson Palmer’s latest nightmare Sunday, where he tossed multiple picks for the third consecutive game, and was held below 200 yards for the second time in three weeks. The Cardinals would have done well to make a run at Josh Freeman.

The What Are You Doing With Your Life Award:Cam Newton is surrounded by dullards on his coaching staff and Schefflers in his receiver corps, but they can’t take all the blame for his third nightmare effort in four games.